Thursday, March 11, 2010

Major Utility Upgrades HomePlug Membership to Sponsor Level to Support Smart Grid and HAN Ecosystem Efforts

PORTLAND, Ore., Mar 10, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- The HomePlug(R) Powerline Alliance, the global driving force for powerline network technology, today announced that Duke Energy has joined the Alliance's board of directors. Duke Energy, one of the largest electric power companies in the United States delivering energy to approximately four million U.S. customers, has upgraded their membership to sponsor level, enabling them to join the Alliance's Board of Directors.
"Powerline networking will play a key role in connecting home appliances and systems to the Smart Grid enabling intelligent management and monitoring for energy savings and efficiency," said David Mohler, VP and chief technology officer, Duke Energy. "HomePlug, as a base specification within the IEEE 1901 Standard, offers an interoperable standards based technology roadmap from low cost to high-bandwidth and next-generation solutions that will meet the needs of the robust home network that is necessary for the smart grid. We look forward to increasing our involvement with the Alliance."
"The Smart Grid has been a key focus for HomePlug, with HomePlug's Green PHY (GP) specification at the center of our smart grid efforts," said Rob Ranck, president of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance. "Utility companies are key players in the roll out of the Smart Grid, and having a major utility like Duke Energy join our board of directors is a very exciting development for the HomePlug Alliance. We see them playing an integral role in shaping the future of the Smart Grid connectivity."
Last month, HomePlug announced the expected finalization of the HomePlug GP specification for the first quarter of 2010. HomePlug GP is a low power, cost-optimized powerline networking specification targeting Smart Grid applications such as HVAC, smart meters, home appliances and plug-in electric hybrid vehicles (PEHV). Major utility companies gave direct input into HomePlug GP technology, optimizing the specification for real world deployments. HomePlug GP is fully interoperable with HomePlug AV and the new IEEE 1901 Draft Powerline Standard.
The HomePlug Powerline Alliance is committed to working with the industry in support of Smart Grid interoperability initiatives. HomePlug worked with the ZigBee Alliance to enable application-layer interoperability between ZigBee wireless and HomePlug powerline devices. The ZigBee/HomePlug Smart Energy Profile has been named in the United States National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) Smart Grid interoperability standards roadmap.
HomePlug devices account for 75 percent of the world's broadband powerline communications market, and over 40 million devices have shipped to date. The Alliance works with key stakeholders to ensure all of its specifications are designed to meet the requirement for interoperability stated by service providers, utilities, equipment and appliance manufacturers, consumer electronics and other important stakeholders. The Alliance operates the powerline networking industry's largest Compliance and Interoperability Certification Program to ensure true multi-vendor co-existence and interoperability. The program has certified more than 190 products and will also begin certifying IEEE 1901 products in 2010.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

PETALING JAYA: AZ-Technology Sdn Bhd has unveiled its latest HomePlug device, the Aztech HL106E, which turns the electrical wiring in your house into a local area network (LAN) for transmitting data.
“The HL106E is a plug-and-play gadget that can be used in any part of the house with a wall socket. This sleek gadget is smaller than a size of a credit card,” said AZ-Technology technical manager Yap Zee Chieun.
Once you plug the HL106E into a wall socket, you can start streaming videos, send photos, and other high bandwidth content at up to 85Mbps throughout the entire home, the company said.
The HL106E is able to encrypt data with 56-bit DES (Data Encryption Standard) encryption to protect against data eavesdropping or hacking.
The plug is designed to work with both ADSL and cable modem extensions with up to 200m of point-to-point coverage.

Aztech HL110EW

The company also unveiled another HomePlug, the HL110EW, which offers up to 200Mbps speed (over electrical wiring) and comes with two Ethernet ports.
It also has the ability to extend a wireless network into any spot at home at a speed of 300Mbps.
The HL110EW has a power button that allows users to switch off the wireless feature when it is not needed, thus saving energy.
To ensure security, it uses Simple Connect which is an automated security system that uses 128-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption. The HL106E and HL110EW are priced at RM99 and RM249 respectively.